Just as remarkable as the power of mobility, over everything from
love to learning to global development, is how fast it all happened.

Nancy Gibbs of Time points out, it is hard to think of any
tool, any instrument, any object in history with which so many developed
so close a relationship so quickly as we have with our phones. Not the
knife or match, the pen or page. Only money comes close—always at hand,
don’t leave home without it. But most of us don’t take a wallet to bed
with us, don’t reach for it and check it every few minutes, and however
useful money is in pursuit of fame, romance, revolution, it is inert
compared with a smart phone—which can replace your wallet now anyway.

Whatever
people thought the first time they held a portable phone the size of a
shoe in their hands, it was nothing like where we are now, accustomed to
having all knowledge at our fingertips. A typical smart phone has more
computing power than Apollo 11 when it landed a man on the moon. In many
parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a
toilet or running water; for millions, this is the first phone they’ve
ever had. In the U.S., close to 9 in 10 adults carry a mobile, leaving
its marks on body, mind, spirit. There’s a smart-phone gait: the slow
sidewalk weave that comes from being lost in conversation rather than
looking where you’re going. Thumbs are stronger, attention shorter,
temptation everywhere: we can always be, mentally, digitally, someplace
other than where we are.

So how do we feel about this? To better
understand attitudes about mass mobility, Time, in cooperation with
Qualcomm, launched the Time Mobility Poll, a survey of close to 5,000
people of all age groups and income levels in eight countries: the U.S.,
the U.K., China, India, South Korea, South Africa, Indonesia and
Brazil. Even the best survey can be only a snapshot in time, but this is
a crisp and textured one, revealing a lot about both where we are now
and where the mobile wave is taking us next.

A tool our parents
could not have imagined has become a lifeline we can’t do without. Not
for a day—in most cases not even for an hour. In Time’s poll, 1 in 4
people check it every 30 minutes, 1 in 5 every 10 minutes. A third of
respondents admitted that being without their mobile for even short
periods leaves them feeling anxious. It is a form of sustenance, that
constant feed of news and notes and nonsense, to the point that twice as
many people would pick their phone over their lunch if forced to
choose. Three-quarters of 25-to-29-year-olds sleep with their phones.

If
Americans have developed surprisingly intimate relationships with their
gadgets, they are still modest compared with people in other countries.
The Time Mobility Poll found that 1 in 5 Americans has asked someone on
a date by text, compared with three times as many Brazilians and four
times as many Chinese. Fewer than 1 in 10 married U.S. respondents
admitted to using texting to coordinate adultery, vs. one-third of
Indians and a majority of Chinese. It may be shocking that nearly a
quarter of all U.S. respondents, including a majority of
18-to-35-year-old men, have sent a sexually provocative picture to a
partner or loved one. But that trails South Africans’ 45% and Indians’
54%. Brazilians are especially exuberant, with 64% baring and sharing
all.

In most respects, overseas mobile users value their devices
the same way Americans do but with a few revealing exceptions. Americans
are grateful for the connection and convenience their phones provide,
helping them search for a lower price, navigate a strange city, expand a
customer base or track their health and finances, their family and
friends. But in some ways Americans are still ambivalent; more than 9 in
10 Brazilians and Indians agreed that being constantly connected is
mostly a good thing. America’s 76% was actually the lowest score.

Carve
up the U.S. population into the general public vs. high-income, highly
educated elites and some contrasts come into focus. Elites are more
likely to say that they work longer hours and have less time to think
but also that mobile has made them more efficient and productive, able
to manage more, be away from the office, stay informed about the news
and be a better parent. Four in 10 Americans think mobility has helped
them achieve a better work-life balance, vs. three-quarters or more of
Indians, Indonesians, Chinese and South Africans.

Like any
romance moving from infatuation to commitment, the connection between
people and their mobile devices reflects what they brought into the
relationship in the first place. In countries where connection and
convenience were difficult, these mobiles offer a kind of time travel,
delivering in the push of a button or touch of a screen the kind of
progress other countries built over decades. Which makes you wonder:
Just how much smaller and smarter and faster and better might our
devices be a decade from now? And how much about our lives and work and
relationships is left to be completely transformed as a result? What do
you think?!